There is a spot in our town where merchants gather to display their wares. Tools and equipment to solve every need, clothing to cover even the most challenging figure, and curios to adorn every wall are openly displayed for all to see. Within each merchant lies the hope that each person who passes by their carefully planned display will be tempted to purchase some item ostensibly filling a need or gap in their brief existence. In short, I was at the mall.

Last week I highlighted the tricks that companies use to find out who you really are. Secret tools that companies know so that they can get around the formality of the interview are critical to the “do we hire this person” decision. In the same vein, there are tricks, observations, and tests that you should use to understand a company’s culture, your future bosses quirks, and the secrets they don’t want you to know about.

 For a year now I have spoken on my radio show about how things are only going to get worse before they begin to turn around. I prayed I was wrong only to find that being right is sometimes not the outcome you really wanted.

Ok, so its 2010. We all have our resolutions for the year and, as Mark Twain so eloquently put it, “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”